Reviews tagging 'War'

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

15 reviews

betag1013's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

jalexpulliamkepler's review

challenging slow-paced

4.0

Interesting and often moving but sometimes felt more like a series of essays than a memoir

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Hate crime, Infidelity, Medical content, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and War

theelliad's review against another edition

3.5

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings is Maya Angelou’s autobiography, exploring the challenges and triumphs of her life. 

This was required reading for my module last year and despite really enjoying what I read of it, I never got round to reading the full book until now. Angelou’s writing is so beautiful and captivating, especially when read by herself, I literally had to finish this in one sitting! I’m not typically a non-fiction reader and so the narrative exploration and descriptive attention to detail felt as immersive and entertaining as any fiction. Her coming to terms with herself, her trauma and the struggles of those around her is made both painful and relatable even for those who have never or will never experience the things she did. This is a case study in self writing and Angelou truly is someone to be studied and remembered. I don’t however understand the purpose of making an autobiography 7 <200 books? Perhaps that is just how storygraph classifies it but this book alone definitely didn’t feel complete which was annoying, I would happily have endured a longer cohesive piece instead of having to spread the reading across multiple books. (note post finishing: apparently there is audio editions of all 7 in one so that’s my bad i just didn’t realise it had 7 parts so didn’t think to look) Overall an enjoyable read :))

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, Car accident, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Abortion and War

brynalexa's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

It’s hard to give a poet anything but five stars on their autobiography. I can’t imagine having such a strong memory of my formative years after going through so many transitions and traumas. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Moderate: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Addiction, Abortion, and Alcohol

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.75

Difficult to read, but in the way that it challenges how you think about things.

In particular this made me consider the times it took place during, the "good ole days" and how shitty they were for a lot people.  I make it a habit to not read much about a book before I pick it up to give everything a fair chance and the reason why I picked those one up was because I saw it on a list of commonly banned books.  While it contains some mature(-ish) content, it is much tamer than many things I read as a youth and the value of showing other-ing on a personal degree is unmatched.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

katydied's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and War

Minor: Sexual assault and Violence

bookishlittleme's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

Maya Angelou is an incredibly significant figure in the arts and this is definitely a must read! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Ableism, Car accident, and Abandonment

Minor: Body shaming, Blood, and War

a_bloom's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.25

It took a little while for me to get used to the writing and actually interested in the story, but within a hundred pages it REALLY captured my attention. Her writing is beautiful and descriptive and painfully aware of how her younger self perceived the situation of her birth and life. However, the last few chapters come off awkward as it strays from the usual pacing, but considering she had more autobots it makes sense.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, and Abortion

Minor: Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Pregnancy, and War

amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Death and War

Minor: Abortion

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual content, Medical content, Grief, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Child death, Drug use, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Car accident, War, and Classism

Poverty, WWII, concentration camps, Japanese displacement, homelessness, d slur.